Navigating Navigator

 

There may be some interest in how we navigate on Navigator.  Driving a boat on a waterway is different than driving a car on a highway.   First, on the water, there are no tracks, no ruts, no lanes, no guard rails, no white lines to follow.  On a waterway, you may find markers - Red on one side and Green on the other to guide you - they mark hazards you need to keep left or right of - they do not define ''lanes".   Chanel markers might be 100 yards apart  - or they might be several thousand yards apart.   Occasionally you will find a red marker directly opposite a green but more often you will find a red, then some distance beyond a green.   Often you will find two or three of one color in a row before there is one of the other color.   Following channel markers is more akin to threading your way through a ski slalom course than it is keeping you car between the white lines.    But unlike a skier descending a slalom course, often you need binoculars to pick out up coming 'gates'.   

So a pair of binoculars are a must, but so is an up to date - and accurate chart.   You might see a 'red' marker in the distance - but is it the next one, or perhaps one beyond?   A look at the chart - depicting the twists and turns of the particular slalom course you are on -will help you sort it out.   Fortunately NOAA produces accurate charts for all US waterways.    

Being out on open water adds the additional challenge of removing you from your normal cues with regard to depth perception.   On the highway if you see a car (or a traffic sign or an overpass) in the distance you have an idea how far away they might be.   On an open body of water it is much more difficult to judge distance.   Sure, you might see other boats in the distance, but boats come in all sizes - is that a small boat 1000 yards away - or a really big boat 2 miles away?  

There are other important challenges, not the least of which are light conditions.  Just like heading to work in rush hour and driving straight into the rising sun, driving a boat straight into a low angle sun creates the problems of glare and stark back lighting.  Dusk and night present different challenges.   No nice little reflectors on the guard rails to keep you lined up.  Yes, some navigational markers are lit up at night, but many are not.     And of course there are the weather conditions that can degrade visibility (rain & fog) and weather that can make controlling the boat difficult or uncomfortable (high wind & waves).

In the first boat my father bought, the "Onward", we used what is called 'dead reckoning'.   Dead reckoning is the process of calculating the position of a moving object by using a previously known position (or 'fix') and incorporating estimates of speed, heading and elapsed time.   In other words use a known starting point and apply vector math.   I know I started at position x, then went for 1 hours along a compass heading of 90 degrees at 10 miles per hour.   On an accurate chart, plot position x, then draw a line 10 miles long due east.  Ignoring any current dragging you left or right - that point is a pretty good estimate of where you are.  As the day goes along and you head south for a while, then west, you can continue to update your current estimated position.   That's pretty much how the old time sailors did it.   Not surprising that there might be a few wrecks resulting from errors in the estimated position!

Remarkably, in my lifetime, technology has advanced to the point where Dead Reckoning is pretty much a lost skill that few boater have anymore.  In 1977 the Air Force started putting up Global Positioning Satellites (GPS) - they wanted to hit targets with missiles.  Of course at first, this was "Top Secret" technology.   But in 1983, after KAL flight 007 was shot down - after straying into Soviet airspace (they could not use GPS positioning) - President Regan issued a directive making GPS available for civilian use.   In 1989 Magellan produced it's first civilian GPS receiver, revolutionizing the aviation, and  recreational boating market.  About 1993 I purchased a hand held Garmin GPS - it told you your current latitude and longitude - that you could then mark on a NOAA chart - verifying your dead reckoning!   

Since then technology has evolved such that your phone has a GPS receiver, a can integrate the position it finds onto a map provided from Google or Apple (via your cellular network) and displayed in the palm of your hand (or on CarPlay).   Boats which frequently pass outside of cellular service require a different approach.   Cruising or working boats all are equipped with  "Chartplotters" - also a GPS receiver and display - but more important they com equipped with all charts for a given region - downloaded into memory.   So as long as you have electric power and a satellite signal the Chartplotter  will display your current position on an accurate chart.   It also gives you additional information like current heading and speed.   

Chartplotters have many other features, not the least of which is the ability to create a route from your current position to a desired position.  This is done by choosing 'Waypoints' along the path that mark your turning points, which you then connect together in a 'Route'.   Careful planning of Waypoints and creation of the Route will result in a path, or road map, to follow safely to your desired position.   Simply keep steering the boat to follow your route, and all should go well!

That gives you a feel for the basics when it comes to how we navigate on the boat.   But of course there is a bit more to it than that.  When we first looked at Navigator in September, I knew the electronic (navigation) system needed up grading.  For starters the system was 16 years old and a number of functions no longer worked.   While it was possible to navigate from the main helm station, the chartplotter on the fly bridge was not reliable.  The nav system on Taku was considerably more advanced.  

We were fortunate enough to find a contractor in Gulf Shores Alabama and got a new electronic navigation  system installed  before we started traveling on the boat.   The current system includes:

Main helm station:

• Garmin Chartplotter with 12 inch display

• Garmin Autopilot

• Cummins VesselView diesel engine display

Flybridge helm station:

• Garmin Chartplotter with 10 inch display

• Cummins Analog diesel engine gauges

Mast:

• Garmin 18 inch Fantom Radar

• Garmin GPS Position Receiver & Antenna 

Depth Transponder:

• p79

AIS:

• Transponder & receiver

VHF Radio

All of these components are networked together via NMEA 2000 Network Hub.   In other words they talk to each other, share data with each other, and can be controlled from different points.   I can control the boat from the Flybridge as effectively as from the Main Helm Station.

 

These state of the art Garmin Chartpotters provides the basic GPS position, displayed on current charts for coastal regions (& lakes) in the US and Canada and ability to create (and save) Waypoints and Routes.  Here are some of the other features:

Chartplotters:

• Local Tide information - provides current, and future tide states.  Choose from a list of the closets official tide stations to select from

• Local Current information - - provides current, and future current speed and direction.  Choose from a list of the closets official current stations to select from.   

• Sonar trace - a graphical display giving not just depth but a picture of bottom conditions.  Useful when navigating a narrow channel and when choosing a spot to anchor

• Radar display - Radar can be displayed separately or as an overlay on the chart.  Each useful in different circumstance

• Combo displays - you can select side by side "combo" displays.   For example Chart and Sonar; Chart and Radar; Chart and Chart (one zoomed in, one zoomed out).

• Depth alarms - keep you alert!

• Geographic information

○ Local Marina information - type of services and how to contact them

○ Local Anchorage information - type of bottom and what wind direction you get protection from

○ Bridge clearance & bridge opening information - and how to contact them

• Advanced features

○ AIS display and warning - AIS, or Automatic Identification System, provides position, heading and speed information of other boats equipped with a transponder.   Boats equipped with a receiver can then use that information to track AIS boats around them.   The Garmin Chartplotter shows AIS boats and with a click gives you their heading and speed.   If the Chartplotter calculates you are on a collision course, you get an alarm

○ Anchor Alarm - set it when you drop anchor and the Chartplotter sends you an alarm if you drift outside a set radius.

○ "Go To" - An on the fly feature where you can click on a point and the Chartplotter tells you the distance and heading you need to follow to 'go to' that point 

○ "Auto Guidance" - a feature where you can select a distant location you wish to travel to.  The Chartplotter automatically projects a safe route to follow.   Once calculated, the Chartplotter asks you to review the projected course and offers you the chance to modify it to your needs, in which case it recalculates based on your modification. 

○ Fantom Radar

§ Doppler display of moving objects - Fixed objects are displayed in one color.   But if the radar detects a moving object, it displays it either in 'green' or 'red'.   Green means the object is not on a collision course.   Red indicates that vessel is on a course that could result in a collision.

Autopilot:

• The Autopilot consists of a Course Computer, an electronic contoller for the hydraulic steering system and an electronic display.    Basically the computer calculates the instructions necessary for the controller to make small hydraulic steering inputs such that the boat follows the route that the helmsman has selected on the Chartplotter. 

• Follow Route - click on 'engage' and the auto pilot will follow either a "Go To" or an "Auto Guidance" route.   This is an incredibly powerful feature.   Once you review and approve a projected route, driving the boat becomes almost entirely hands free.   On the 18 hour crossing from Apalachicola to Tarpon Springs we ran on Autopilot for about 15 of those hours.

• Remote Control - The autopilot has a Bluetooth remote control that allows the pilot to sit back and make small adjustments to the course without touching the helm or the Chartplotter.    

Additional technology

Starlink:

• We equipped Navigator with a Starlink Mini to provide reliable internet.   While we are frequently within range of cellular service and some marinas provide Wifi, we wanted something more reliable, especially when remote.  At places like Sable Island and Dry Tortugas, Starlink was our only internet access.   This is not essential for navigation (the Chartplotters are self contained) but it does provide us access to current weather & wave information - which is essential.   We use various Apps to review the weather picture daily:

○ PredictWind

○ Windy

○ Acuweather

○ NOAA - Buoy Data/forecasts

NWS - Marine Discussions

While all this technology is fantastic!, of course driving a boat safely requires a watchful eye and careful judgment!